Latest on The English Monster

On Friday, I sent the latest draft of The English Monster to my editors at Simon and Schuster. Obviously, this was the first time I’d worked on a new draft with editors’ notes, and it was fascinating to go over the manuscript again with someone else’s goggles on. Bits that seemed good now seemed a bit ponderous, adverbs popped up all over the place in direct contravention of the Blessed Dictums of Elmore Leonard, and bits which I’d forgotten about suddenly seemed to be, well, a bit good, actually. The redraft involved some retooling of four key scenes, general copy edits and a good deal of tightening up in the middle. I hope they like it.

Meanwhile, while I was working on that, the good people at United Agents have been busy selling the book further afield, and there are three deals in place since the UK deal was done: audiobook rights in the UK went to WF Howes; Italian-language rights to Fazi Editore; and (deep breath) The English Monster has now been sold in the US, to Atria, an imprint of Simon and Schuster.

Typing that makes me shudder. Italy. Audio. The United States. Now all I need is Aurelio Zen to wander into St Mark’s Square, sit down for an espresso, fire up his Kindle, and start reading my book from behind expensive sunglasses.

So, the journey continues. This week’s about Book Two, which has more titles than the Prince of Wales and needs to decide on one sooner rather than later, and (hopefully) about discussing the new draft with Simon and Schuster. Onwards and upwards.